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night-vision optics. It took the others only a couple of seconds to spot the threat before the sounds of the main rotor blades whipping through the thin mountain air reached their ears.
    “Oh shit! Everybody: down! Now! ” Gephel shouted but noticed just as quickly that all of them had already done so. He took cover behind a clump of rocks and hoped the ragged rocky outline would make them hard to spot.
    A few tense seconds passed during which Gephel could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears. But it was soon clear that the Mi-17 was not looking for them. And sure enough, it flew past the crouching team members by a leisurely five hundred meters. A minute later it was beyond the peaks the team had been on when they had been overlooking the village. Gephel motioned for the rest to stay where they were for another minute to make sure the threat had dissipated. Fifty seconds later it was clear that the Chinese helicopter was busy dealing with the Tibetans to their south.
    “Doesn’t look like they know of our existence,” Ngawang noted for everybody. Gephel shook his head:
    “You can thank the Tibetans for that. Looks like they are giving the Chinese, what the Americans call ‘a run for their money’. Okay, let’s move out.”
    Ngawang got up from above the rocks and took a few steps before a dark delta winged aircraft swept over their heads and streaked to the south, the sounds of thunder sent the team diving for the rocky ground yet again.
    “What the hell was that?” Ngawang shouted as the thunder in their ears subsided. Gephel was already on his back and staring at the southern peaks to see where the aircraft had gone. The hills were dark, but the green sky in his night-vision optics picked up the dark blob in contrast as the aircraft reached for the sky at much slower speeds now: the pilot was positioning to visually acquire his target...
     
     
    SKIES OVER WESTERN LADAKH
    INDIA
    MAY 15, 2018 HRS
    “November-two-four has initiated attack runs. We have him gaining altitude above grid-reference three-two-bravo slash seven-nine-echo,” the radar console operator read off the numbers from the screen. Verma was already on the satellite communications link with the operations commander at WAC:
    “This is Eagle-Eye-One actual. We show enemy strike package November-two-four initiating attack runs. November-two-five through eight still southbound with AWACS support.”
    By this time, Air-Marshal Bhosale was monitoring the air situation personally along with his staff. It was the beginning of a long night for all of them. The giant digital map overlay in the operations center showed everybody exactly what the Phalcon radar was seeing. And it was getting very crowded up there...
    “Who do we have up today to greet the reds?” Bhosale asked.
    “Three Mig-29s from Leh inbound to greet the single J-10 attacking Shiquanhe in case it gets any closer to the border. Three Su-30 escorts from Eagle-Eye-One flight have assumed BARCAP positions and we have another four Su-30s heading north to assist. Eagle-Eye-One is being pulled south,” Bhosale’s operations chief replied as he read off the details from recent memory.
    “Good. Pass the word: I want weapons tight on this one. No mistakes,” Bhosale said and turned his gaze to the real-time updating data on screen. The aircraft were rapidly approaching the border from both sides…
     
    LEH AIRBASE
    INDIA
    MAY 15, 2018 HRS
    Leh airbase had been unusually busy ever since the crisis in Tibet had escalated to the threat of military clashes with China. The Indian Army was surging forward larger number of units into the Ladakh sectors. The IAF was doing its best to ensure a solid logistical node existed for those units at Leh. As such, the number of flights inbound and outbound from Leh was immense. Between the transport flights during the day, the helicopter and UAV operations by the resident units at the airbase and the fighter operations by the Mig-29s of No. 28 Squadron,